The record price paid last week for a joystick control unit used during the Apollo 15 lunar mission in 1971 suggests the public still has a love affair with America's space program.

The device, a spring-loaded rotational hand controller with attached cables, was purchased for the sum of $610,063 -- the highest amount ever paid for a space travel-related antique or collectable, according to Brian Stallard of Nature World News.

Commander David Scott reportedly procured the joystick from the lunar landing module before his Apollo 15 crew returned to Earth.

Bidding on the item opened at $10,000 and ended on Thursday evening.

The identity of the winning bidder was not disclosed by the auction house, reported the AFP news agency.

The joystick was one of several Apollo mission items offered by New Hampshire-based RR Auction as part of an online auction featuring artifacts from the 1960s and 1970s NASA spaceflight program .

"We all can imagine what it must have been like to land on the moon, but to have the chance to grab hold of the very joystick that accomplished that feat is a priceless experience -- and at the same time, worth every bit of the more than half a million dollars it commanded at auction," Robert Pearlman of CollectSpace.com told CNN.

There were 500 antique collectables in all included in the auction, many associated with Apollo program missions.

The joystick was one of three items that surpassed the $100,000mark. A Flown Crewman Optical Alignment Sight from Apollo 15 sight fetched just over $126,179 and a Block II Entry Monitoring System assembly sold for $114,709, according to Nature World News.

According to CNN, collector and space travel enthusiast Larry McGlynn won a cloth American flag that made the journey to the moon and back, a 2.5-inch by 1.75-inch commemorative banner that was framed with an Apollo 15 uniform patch.

"To be honest with you, there's only 12 men who walked on the moon out of 105 billion people who have walked on this earth since humankind started walking upright. These are incredibly rare items," McGlynn told CNN.

Other items sold at auction included: a lunar surface checklist and copy of the Declaration of Independence that traveled to the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission; a backpack strap from Charles Conrad's Personal Life Support System that was used during two Apollo 12 moonwalks; and an autographed spacesuit worn by cosmonaut Aleksander Volkov during a trip to the Mir space station in late 1991 to early 1992.

The popularity of the space program auction items came as no surprise to RR Auction executive vice president Bobby Livingston, who told CNN something about NASA's Apollo-era astronauts resonates with the public.

"People love the heroism and the sophistication. You have to remember, everyone from Galileo to Einstein to Neil Armstrong looked up to the moon, wanting to figure out how to get there -- and these astronauts were able to get up there and come back down," Livingston said.